Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty Four

A signal came through a comm channel on the Olympus explorer ship Star Gazer. Immediately Jacob stood upright in his chair. He had waited for this moment for so long. Immediately he turned to Tamara on the comms.

“Contact Earth, operation “Freedom” is a go.” Jacob said. Tamara nodded and immediately started sending the message to Earth using the Olympus FTL comms. They had given an FTL comm to every Resistance leader on Earth. All of them would get the message at the same time.

“Message sent!” Tamara said.

“Send the go signal to our people.” Jacob said, the people they had in wait at the mining sites were ready to start the attack. “Mathias, get us underway.” Jacob added. For the first time in more than sixty years the OES Star Gazer turned on its drives. The ship pointed itself towards its target and started on its way.

***

Anissa Novak sat in her chair on the CIC of the Lord. She was in the  Pacific Ocean about 1000 kilometers from Hawaii island group. She looked to her subordinate on the FTL comms, and waited for the signal from Jacob to come. They knew that the Olympus ships had arrived in system, and had moved towards Earth. They had also learned that the Dakar Vit’r’an has boarded his ship in orbit. Now they only waited for the signal from Jacob that the Ra’a’zani ship was engaged with the Olympus fleet, and the attack would begin. Anissa’s sub was close to the surface, waiting to unleash fire upon the unsuspecting Ra’a’zani bases. Eldritch had arranged for power losses in several bases, and sabotage of defense systems in the bases where he managed to get someone close to the relevant systems. For a few bases they couldn’t be sure that their sabotage would work, so they had teams of people close, in Concordis military transports waiting to assault the bases that manage to survive. Some of the bases were too far away from the Lord for it to attack them, so they would be taken out by the Colorado in the Mediterranean. But the Earth was too big for just two subs, no matter how advanced and powerful their missiles are. Other bases that were outside of both of their reach would be destroyed from the inside, by Eldritch’s bombers. Or if they couldn’t get anyone in, by a physical assault on the base by their people.

“We got a message from Star Gazer!” Her subordinate exclaimed, “Operation “Freedom” is a go! I repeat operation “Freedom” Is a go!” She yelled out.

Anissa took a deep breath, “Begin the firing sequence.”

***

The Coalition submarine Colorado, was just off the shore of Italy. Its main target was the Ra’a’zani headquarters for Earth. The Colorado had a lot smaller amount of missiles, as it was much smaller than the Lord. It would fire missiles towards four bases, all in the Europe and the Middle East. But most of its load would go to the Ra’a’zani headquarters. Then, they received the signal. The message from the Star Gazer went out to every Resistance command center across the planet at the same time. Within minutes, all the attacks began, almost simultaneously. The commanding officer of the Colorado immediately issued the order for the firing sequence.

***

Eldritch received the message from the Star Gazer, and immediately his own teams sent out a worldwide message using their own FTL comms. Within seconds all of his people knew that the attacks were about to begin. The sabotage teams executed their assignments immediately, they were all ready, waiting only for the go signal from Eldritch. His teams triggered bombs, some destroying the power generators of the bases, others sabotaging their defense systems. Some even blowing up entire bases. The time had come, the fight for Earth had begun.

***

Aileen adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She didn’t know what had happened, but the Ra’a’zani were distracted, Dakar Vit’r’an had taken the shuttle up to his ship in the orbit leaving Tra’r’an in charge. Aileen suspected that perhaps another convoy arrived unannounced. But it didn’t matter what it was, it gave her the chance to slip some supplies. It had been weeks since she last managed to slip away, so when she saw the chance she took it. She walked the dark streets, the only light coming from the base. The last time she came through these streets, they were filled with people that were warming themselves around fires. Now there was no one, the cots on the streets were empty. She picked up the pace, walking faster towards the Father’s building. After a couple also empty streets, she reached the old gray brick building. She entered expecting to see people inside, during the nights the building was always full with people. But it too was empty, just like the streets. Looking around she wondered about what could have happened. Did this have something to do with why the Ra’a’zani were so distracted? Seeing that there was no one there she decided to turn back. She couldn’t afford to be gone for too long. Then as she turned she heard voices deeper inside the building. Relieved that there was someone present she walked toward the voices. She reached the doors leading into the room from which the voices came from. As she approached she could understand what they were saying.

“- moment please.” She recognized the Father’s voice.

“We need to go, there is no more time.” Another voice said. Aileen slowly reached the door and stepped in.

“This is the last thing, we can leave now.” The Father said, Aileen saw him reaching over to a bookshelf taking a large book from it and putting it in his bag.

“Father.” Aileen said hesitantly, she could see another person was there, but the room was badly lit and she couldn’t make out anything other than a large human form. The Father turned around immediately, and recognizing her his eyes widened. Then something blurred in front of Aileen, and she felt herself pulled forward and then slammed into a wall, her bag slipping from her shoulder and onto the floor. Her sight darkened from the force and she lost her breath, something pushed on her throat. She managed to open her eyes and was met with a gun shoved in front of her face. It was like no gun she had ever seen, but it was still recognizable.

“Stop!” She heard the Father say. “Don’t kill her.”

Aileen, already frightened, felt her blood freeze over. She managed to focus and look past the gun. She saw only a glass like plate instead of a face.

“She has a red armband. That means she is one of the trusted ones.” A voice came out of the plate. Aileen struggled to breathe as Father reached over and placed his hand on the thing’s shoulder.

“I know, but she has been helping us. Sneaking out supplies, medicine and food.” The Father said.

“Then why is she here now?” The voice asked.

“Look down, she brought supplies.” The Father said.

The head of her attacker moved slightly to the side and down. Then it released her throat and let her down, it moved back still keeping its weapon pointed at her. Aileen took a deep breath and scratched her neck.

“What are you doing here?” The voice asked. Scared, Aileen glanced at the spilled contents of her bag. “I- I was bringing supplies to Father.” Slowly Aileen managed to rasp out.

“Your timing is fortunate.” The voice commented. Then Father moved to stand in front of her.

“You think that they would send her here alone if they knew anything?” The Father asked, “If they knew, we would be swimming in Ra’a’zani strike teams.” The Father said, and Aileen swallowed hard. She realized what was happening. The Father was a member of the Resistance. Aileen tried to move but the man followed her with his gun.

“We should kill her.” The voice said.

“No!” The Father yelled out. “This is the house of God. And she is a good person.”

“We don’t have the time for this Father. So either we kill her, or she comes with us. We can’t let her go back to the base. If things go bad she could give them at least some warning.” The voice said.

Father nodded, and then turned to Aileen, “Child.” He said softly, “I know that you are confused, but you must come with us.”

“You are with the Resistance.” Aileen managed to say.

Father nodded, “Please child, I need you to trust me.” He said, his voice pleading. He didn’t wait for her to respond, but grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, the thing that kept her at gunpoint stepping in front of them. Seeing it in the light of the hallway, she realized that it was a human wearing some kind of armored suit. Before she realized what was happening they stepped outside the building using the back door. To the right she saw the base out in the distance, the light of it barely reaching them. She turned left and saw a vehicle parked there, it was unlike anything she had ever seen.

“I can’t go with you!” Aileen said. “If they want, they can track this armband, they will find me, and kill both of us.” Aileen stopped in her tracks.

The Father grabbed her shoulders trying to make her move, “Child please, you have no idea what is about to happen. If you go back you will die for certain.” He said. Aileen was about to ask him what he was talking about, when suddenly the courtyard was enveloped in darkness. Aileen tried to look out towards the base, and saw only its outline against the starry night.

“Damn. We are out of time.” The armored man said, he stepped forward and picked up both of them. Carrying them effortlessly and quickly to the vehicle. Aileen struggled to get free but the grip on her was too strong. Then both she and the Father were thrown behind the vehicle, the armored man kneeling above them. Aileen managed to get her head up just in time to see the light of the base come back up, and immediately a bright globes of light exploded out of the base. She had never seen the defensive turrets on the base fire, but she knew that it was what those were. A second later she heard three loud explosions and light coming over the buildings from the other direction of the base. Then several streaks of light flew over her head too fast for her to count them.

“Heads down!” She heard an instant before she was roughly pulled back down, a hand coming over her head. Then several earth-shattering blasts sounded all around. Aileen felt her ears hurt from the force of the blasts, the ground shook, and whiteness shone through her closed eyelids. A moment later a shockwave came through shaking everything. Aileen screamed, but couldn’t hear herself. Then the light abated but everything still shook. The last thing Aileen remembered before passing out was the buildings around them coming down, and a blazing hell where the Ra’a’zani base once was.

Chapter Twenty Five

The Monarch and the Second Fleet sped towards the Ra’a’zani ship, that likewise sped towards them. Soon the Ra’a’zani ship entered the Second Fleet maximum missile range. But Johanna waited, she wanted the ship into their optimal range before firing. She ordered her ships to lock their laser weapons on the Ra’a’zani ship. She wanted to see the full speed of the Ra’a’zani ship as it tried to evade the laser fire. A few seconds later, she gave the order for her ships to fire.

***

Suddenly dozens of invisible laser beams struck out from the human ships, reaching out at the speed of light to strike at the Ra’a’zani ship. The lasers reached their target, striking the scale like hull of the Ra’a’zani ship. Immediately after being struck the hull plates shimmered and the heat of the lasers reflected off the hull, leaving it unscathed.

***

“The humans have opened fire with Tarsha’ka weapons Dakar.” One of the bridge crew said. Vit’r’an looked at the status of his ships, seeing that there was no damage. The human Tarsha’ka were not powerful enough damage his ship’s hull. Now finally convinced that human ships posed no threat to his ship, Vit’r’an focused all his skills on a plan to capture a human ship. Preferably he would need to disable one, without destroying it. Which definitely meant destroying its drives.

“Should we return fire Dakar?” Another of his crew asked. Vit’r’an though about it for a moment. The Blood Claw had weapons that could reach the human fleet, but that would mean switching to the war mode, and he didn’t want to scare them off. If they started running away, he would need to hunt them across the system. And he didn’t want to bother with that.

“No, let them get a bit closer.” Vit’r’an said. He showed his teeth. He planned on destroying this human fleet utterly for the insult he was given by the human female. And then when he returned to Earth he would kill half of their population for failing to tell them that the human race had colonies.
Maybe he would first learn the details about how that came to be. But then, he would make them pay.

***

“Our weapons have no effect Ship Master!” The Sensor Handler called out.

Andros watched the holo as the information came back. The Ra’a’zani ship was not even bothering to roll and spread out the heat of lasers.

“Keep at it!” Andros ordered. Perhaps if they keep at they might inflict some damage. The Ra’a’zani ship kept coming not concerned about the Second Fleet. Andros got a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced at Johanna, who was busy reading the information on her c-board and formulating new orders. Then his own board got new orders.

“Stop firing lasers. Lock missiles!” Andros ordered.

His Weapons Handler started sending out orders to the missile firing teams throughout the ship. “Missiles locked!” Weapons Handler yelled out.

Andros saw an order come to his board,
All ships fire.

“Fire missiles!” Andros ordered. A moment later the holo was filled with new signatures. Hundreds of missiles were on their way towards the Ra’a’zani ship.

***

Vit’r’an saw the hundreds of Pasha’ka speeding towards his ship. For a moment he was worried, but then one of his Taskmasters yelled out, “The Pasha’ka have no defenses against the Srasah’uk!”

Vit’r’an pulled back his lips showing his teeth in a Ra’a’zani smile, the human ships were firing such primitive weapons at his ship that he was almost tempted to maneuver his ship around their fleet in circle letting them try all of their arsenal, just to show them how futile it was. “Start scanning their Pasha’ka frequencies.” Vit’r’an said. He waited as the human Pasha’ka passed the half-way point between his and their ships. A Taskmaster let Vit’r’an know that they had acquired the frequencies of all the human Pasha’ka. But Vit’r’an waited some more, letting the Pasha’ka draw a bit closer to his ship. Then when he thought that letting them any closer was a risk for his ship he called out, “Engage the Srasah’uk!” Vit’r’an ordered. And within moments, all of the human Pasha’ka exploded at the same time.

***

Johanna watched as the missiles her fleet fired drew closer and closer with no response from the Ra’a’zani ship. The closer they came the more she felt like something was wrong. And then she watched as the every missile on her holo disappeared.

“Turiel! What happened?” She called out to the Ai.

“All the missiles exploded Fleet Commander.” Turiel said.

“Why? Was there a malfunction?” Johanna asked, although she already knew that it wasn’t.

“I detected no malfunction. The reason for the explosions is unknown.” Turiel said, and Johanna’s heart stopped for a moment. She reached over and started forming new orders.

“Turiel, program the missiles to engage their second stage early. At the half way mark.”

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Turiel responded.

***

Vit’r’an watched as the human ships started firing even more Pasha’ka. In a short time thousands of Pasha’ka were again on their way towards the Blood Claw. Vit’r’an ordered his Taskmasters to lock on to the Pasha’ka frequencies again. He followed the Pasha’ka tracks on his terminal, and then they reached the half way mark. Suddenly the number of the Pasha’ka increased, new tracks started appearing on his terminal.

“We lost the locks! Whatever they have just done changed the frequencies!” A Taskmaster yelled out panicky. Vit’r’an felt a moment of panic himself. The number of Pasha’ka was great, and even his ship might be destroyed under the onslaught of so many.

“Lock on the new frequencies!” Dakar Vit’r’an ordered. He watched as his crew worked frantically to get them all, but he saw that they wouldn’t make it in time. When the Pasha’ka reached the same distance as the last time, Vit’r’an yelled out,

“Engage the Srasah’uk!” He ordered. His crew didn’t manage to lock on them all, but Vit’r’an had no choice but to hope that the explosions of the others would take out those not locked on, he had no time to switch his ship to its war mode, and engage the other defenses. And so he prayed that if any passed through, they wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to his ship.

***

In space more than nine thousand human missiles sped towards their target. Then suddenly more than ninety percent of them exploded, taking with them most of the others. But four missiles, by some miracle managed to survive. They reached their target, and impacted with the front of the Ra’a’zani ship. Four explosions hit the Ra’a’zani ship in quick succession. But the ship kept going. Its hull suffering minor damage.

***

“Minor damage Dakar. The hull integrity for the forward section has fallen to eighty three percent. But it should still be sufficient to prevent human Tarsha’ka weapons from inflicting any damage.” A Taskmaster said.

Vit’r’an felt his anger rise to the surface. The slaves had managed to hit his ship! Their primitive weapons damaged his hull! He would not allow that again. He didn’t know if they had more of those multiplying Pasha’ka but Vit’r’an wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

“Engage the war mode.” Vit’r’an ordered. “And get us above their formation, half speed. I’m done playing.” Vit’r’an growled looking at the human fleet.

***

Johanna looked at the Ra’a’zani ship after her failed attack. They managed to hit the Ra’a’zani ship, but whether their defenses were overwhelmed or four of her missiles simply got lucky, it didn’t matter. Her ships didn’t have enough missiles for another salvo of the same size. She debated using torpedoes, but if Ra’a’zani could destroy them from afar it would serve little point. The only thing she had left was her ships kinetic weapons. And if she fired them at this distance they were unlikely to hit her target. That was her last chance. The Ra’a’zani ship was much more formidable than they could have ever imagined. The ease with which it shrugged off their attacks was freighting.

Johanna debated turning around and running away, but she knew that she couldn’t. The attacks on Earth had already begun. If she ran away, there was nothing that could save Earth from the wrath of the Ra’a’zani. No, they needed to fight. Johanna studied the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull, it was certainly damaged. Her missiles did hurt them, although it seemed like it was minor damage. Perhaps if she could close the distance, and get a torpedo to hit… Then Johanna saw a change take over the Ra’a’zani ship. She watched as its hull plates moved in a wave like motion, overlapping, moving around, and opening. Johanna watched as platforms rose up from within the Ra’a’zani ship. The platforms held things that looked like her ships turrets, only wider and shorter. When the transformation finished the hull plates moved back closing over the platforms, so that only the turrets were visible. The shimmering that they saw when their lasers hit the hull now appeared over the weapons.

Johanna looked in disbelief at the how much more menacing the enemy ship looked, then its speed increased and it changed its course. Seeing what the Ra’a’zani ship was trying to do, Johanna started issuing orders to her fleet, changing its formation. The Ra’a’zani ship was coming for them, and she knew that this time it would be going on the offensive. Johanna knew her only shot was to hit it with her last card, and hope that it would work.